Computer and video games have matured from the likes of “Pong” into epic adventures having rich storylines, photorealistic graphics, and complex interaction systems, thereby allowing players to immerse themselves in the alternative reality that is emulated by the video game. As used herein, video games may include, but are not limited to, any game played on a data processing device. Examples of video games may include computer games, game console games (e.g., playable on the Microsoft Xbox®, Sony PlayStation®, and/or Nintendo® 64 and Wii brand game consoles), coin-operated or token-operated arcade games, portable gaming device games (e.g., playable on the PlayStation Portable (“PSP”®), Nintendo Game Boy and DS™, mobile phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants, etc.), or other software-driven games that are played on personal computers (“PCs”).
Real-time global illumination has long been a goal of the video game industry to enhance the quality of the gameplay by rendering more photorealistic images. Such images need to take lighting effects into account by simulating the underlying physical phenomena of light emission, propagation, and reflection to thus model the interaction of light between all objects in a video game scene. Particularly for indoor scenes where light cannot escape, the effects of inter-reflection of light among object surfaces, which can account for a significant portion of the total illumination in the scene, should be considered. A global illumination model is typically used to simulate the effects of inter-reflection by considering all objects as potential sources of illumination in the scene.
A radiosity algorithm that was originally developed to model radiant heat transfer has developed into a powerful simulation technique for providing realistic lighting for global illumination. Radiosity simulates many reflections of light around the scene and can produce effective lighting results for scenes comprising multiple diffuse reflecting surfaces. Images resulting from a solver that implements a radiosity algorithm are characterized by more accurate soft-shadowed regions, color bleeding among objects, subtle changes in brightness across objects like walls, and other realistic lighting effects. However, while producing realistic results, radiosity solvers are typically computationally intensive and can consume substantial resources on a video gaming system as compared to solutions using other techniques such as ray tracing. Accordingly, real-time radiosity solutions have traditionally been difficult to implement.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.